In our cycle of prayer for our community, during September 2018 we will be
offering prayers for all working in
High Street
The Borough
Requests for particular prayers can be made by telephoning Reverend Frank Gimson
on 01725 510326, emailing info@stlaurencedownton.co.uk or leaving a request on the prayer tree in church.
What's on
Harvest Celebration
Sunday 7th October
10.00am All Age Worship
with Downton Band
followed by Harvest Lunch
Goose Fair 2018
A very big thank you
to everyone who helped in so many different ways to make the
Goose Fair such a success again this year.
The church looked wonderful as always, with crafts galore, jewellery, bygones, home-made and home-grown produce. The interesting exhibitions by various local organisations enabled visitors to find out more about our historic village and its active community. We also had delicious refreshments, fun children’s games and the chance to win a luxury hamper. All was much appreciated and enjoyed by the many visitors to the Fair, and also raised much needed funds for the church.
Thank you one and all!
Downton Christmas Tree Festival
St Laurence Church
Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th December 2018
Entries Welcome
from individuals, schools, families, businesses, charities and community groups of
Christmas trees, wreaths and table top scenes of your own design.
Let your imagination run riot with unusual or traditional decorations, with a theme,
as a tribute or just decorative - whatever inspires you!
Entry forms will be available in both the Borough Café and St Laurence Church
or can be downloaded here.
Final entry deadline: 25th November.
Any funds raised during the festival will be divided between the Downton4Family and
other charitable causes chosen by St Laurence Church.
Last year we raised just under £1900 – let’s make £2000 or more this year!
The registered charity Downton4Family promotes the care and upbringing of children,
providing mentoring, advocacy & parenting support to relieve the needs of families
at risk of breaking down or having already broken down.
Coffee and Company
Sadly we shall no longer be meeting for coffee on Monday mornings. Over the years we have been very pleased
to welcome regular attenders and occasional visitors, but as numbers have been falling for some time now
we have reluctantly decided to close.
We are grateful to those who have supported us for a long time.
St Laurence Church will continue to be open on a daily basis, in daylight hours, for anyone who wants to come and look round.
St Laurence Summer Fete - Thank you!
Despite a damp start the summer fete was well attended. It was opened by the Cuckoo Fair Princess, and we were entertained as usual by the Downton Band with some rousing tunes, and some wonderful routines from the Forest School of Dance. Both the Downton Primary School Choir and the Community Choir gave great performances both individually and together.
There was a great mixture of stalls, with some fun games for the children, and the adults had
the opportunity to take part in a quiz about the recent Royal Wedding with the chance to win some lovely prizes.
The Raffle was well stocked with prizes and was as popular as ever.
I would like to express my grateful thanks to all the volunteers who manned the stalls and refreshment tent,
to all those who donated goods, took time to bake cakes and other goodies and to those who agreed to look after
the plant stall at short notice. There were so many people who worked tirelessly on the day to get
everything ready and then dismantle it again at the end - without them the fete just could not happen.
I would also like to personally thank Angela and Judy who took so much work off me this year in organising the
advertising for the fete and arranging stall holders. We are grateful to Jeremy Parsons for looking after
the sound system despite some damp conditions, Dave Mercer for the use of his Landrover and of course
Roger Peach for allowing St Laurence to use his lovely garden.
Reuben Stevens
The PCC are very grateful to Reuben for all his hard work in organising the Fete this year.
Ken Parsons - Churchwarden
At our Annual Meeting on 15th April, after many years of devoted service, Ken Parsons stood down as Churchwarden for St Laurence Church. Ken has been our Churchwarden since 2010, and in that time has performed an exemplary service, supported always by his wife Jo.
Ken has worked tirelessly for St Laurence, going far beyond what a Churchwarden is called to do. In particular, Ken saw us through the planning, design, construction and completion of the wonderful new facilities as the back of Church – facilities that have greatly enhanced our use of our building.
Ken has also been a great support and encouragement to me as Team Rector, both personally and in my ministry here.
Although he is stepping down as Churchwarden, Ken continues to give of his time and energy to the Church as a Deputy Churchwarden.
We are all extremely grateful for all that Ken has done over these past 8 years. Thank you, Ken.
Revd. Frank Gimson
Team Rector
St Laurence Church is now on Facebook!
For all our latest news and events visit
and like our page
Together with many others in our community,
we are looking for ways to support and
help refugees and migrants.
for suggestions of how we might do this.
FREE MONEY for St Laurence Trinity FUNders
Support St Laurence's Trinity FUNders every time you shop online, click the sign up button on the page Link to start fundraising for St Laurence's Trinity FUNders.
Help St Laurence's Trinity FUNders raise money, just by shopping online.
Latest total changes daily - Total as at
8.8.18 stands at £915.45
THANK YOU to all our supporters
Please follow the link here to see more photos
St Laurence Church supporting Local Charities
Our aim with this page is to Support Local Charities by promoting their events here - Free of Charge.
If you would like to place an advertisement on this page, and your event is within 10 miles of St Laurence Church - Downton.
Follow this link for more details.
Current advertisers -